The United States Does CAIR About Cultural Safety: Examining Cultural Safety Within Indigenous Health Contexts in Canada and the United States.

PURPOSE

This article examines the concept and use of the term cultural safety in Canada and the United States.

DESIGN

To examine the uptake of cultural awareness, cultural sensitivity, cultural competence, and cultural safety between health organizations in Canada and the United States, we reviewed position statements/policies of health care associations.

FINDINGS

The majority of selected health associations in Canada include cultural safety within position statements or organizational policies; however, comparable U.S. organizations focused on cultural sensitivity and cultural competence.

DISCUSSION

Through the work of the Center for American Indian Resilience, we demonstrate that U.S. researchers engage with the tenets of cultural safety-despite not using the language.

CONCLUSIONS

We recommend that health care providers and health researchers consider the tenets of cultural safety.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE

To address health disparities between American Indian populations and non-American Indians, we urge the adoption of the term and tenets of cultural safety in the United States.